Thread: Ever have bolt stretching when reinstalling camshaft brackets?

Yeah, do not use a ft-lb torque wrench on cam cap bolts. Only an in-lb one.

I read the title and was going crazy trying to figure out what bolt "starching" was.I even came up with well thought out ideas of what it was.Then I read further and was disappointed to find there is no such thing as bolt starching.Damn.

lol I did too. I was like "Starching. does that mean its like shaving off in bits"

lol I did too. I was like "Starching. does that mean its like shaving off in bits?"

Not sure if anyone noticed that the 15 lbs ref was talking about the exhaust header bolt?

The FSM shows 8 foot pounds. I'm sure a higher end of the inch range would be more accurate. The other set of bolts did not have the problem. I set my torque wrench (which was already over sensitive, not under) to click just before the existing bolts moved. It all added up, I accounted for the sloppy Sears wrench, which I had already developed a memory for, and the replacement set of bolts did not stretch. And everything is still working wonderfully.

As no one has ever run across this, I'm not in a hurry to do anything else to this motor.

i dont even use a tq wrench on them. just tighten them and half a turn past snug and your good. really easy to do

torque wrenches specify that once you get down into the lower 20% of the range, the accuracy goes down. so if you used a torque wrench that was meant for higher torque applications, that could be your problem.

i had a friend torque one of those to 90ft-lbs because he misheard me when i said in-lbs. but whats funny is it didn't break like yours even at that torque, it just stretched

I misread inch and foot once, once. I broke the bolts by hand, they all stretched. Gotta get an inch pounds and foot pounds of some good quality.

for lower ftlb torque, always convert to inlb and us an inlb torque wrench. It will always be more accurate. But morgan is right, anything less the 20ftlb, you do not need a torque wrench.

I hear what everyone is saying about that low of a torque setting, old wrenches and general sloppiness of tools lately.

The thing that gets me is, I first calibrated my wrench to known bolts and other gear. The bolts I took of an identical motor did not stretch using the same torque and hand feel. I had an exhaust header stud break as well. The stock down pipe was rusted out which makes the motor run hotter and I just wondered if a hot motor might effect bolts to the point of needing to be replaced.